iOS Development Makes Objective-C The Third Most Common Programming Language

iOS app development makes Objective-C one of the most popular programming languages.

According to a recent study, iPhone and iPad app development has a bigger learning than curve than any other mobile platform. It also costs developers more in terms of time and expenses to develop an iOS app than to create an Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone app.

Despite those challenges, iOS has boosted the popularity of Objective-C, the programming language used by Apple for both Mac and iOS development – making it the third most popular language with developers.

Given that the same study that listed iOS as the most costly platform for developers also noted that it offered the most financial reward, it’s easy to see why developers might opt for iOS development and Objective-C over some of the other platforms and programming languages out there.

According to the TIOBE Programming Community Index for July 2012, Objective-C beat out C++ for the number three spot. It comes in behind C and Java, which garnered the top two spots with 18.331% and 16.087% of developers using them respectively.

Both C and Java are much more commonly used across a range of platforms and developer environments that either Objective-C or C++, which have been neck and neck for the number three spot for quite some time. In July’s index, Objective-C garnered a respectable 9.335% to take the lead while C++ came in just slightly behind with 9.118% of developers actively using it.

The remaining programming languages making up the top ten list include a number of web-related languages.

“iOS has boosted the popularity”. I would argue that there is no choice but use this language if you want to write Apple Apps. That does not make it popular with developers, just forces them to use it. Better than C++ (what a nightmare, all those pointers, pointless really) but I would not say it was a popular language. Still, some interesting statistics on frequency of use here. Thanks

spaceman37

One can also use MonoDevelop and code native iOS Apps in C#

dadaGuerilla

I think it’s funny that a language that was conceptualized in the 1970s and developed in the 1980s is the third most popular programming language in the 21st century—and that the software industry still hasn’t been able to completely remove humans from the tasks of managing their programs’ memory, which is the biggest contributor to buggy code that I know of….